


Flames of the Phoenix

by Ryeaugla



Series: Super Smash Chronicles [8]
Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening, Super Smash Brothers, Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Backstory, F/M, Hoarding, M/M, Male Friendship, Meet the Family, New Character Introduction, Past Character Death, Prophetic Dreams, family arguments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-07-23 22:58:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7483251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryeaugla/pseuds/Ryeaugla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After meeting somebody who he knows from his past at the celebration for the newest Smashers, Robin has to go into details about his tragic past when things get revealed by accident. Meanwhile, Kamui and Daraen get accustomed to being roommates, but will Daraen's disorganized nature end up hurting Kamui?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Is it Really Her?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin meets somebody he thinks he knows from his own realm, but more information comes to light than he had originally hoped for, and he's being forced to tell his story.

“...Daraen, are you coming or not?”

Shulk was standing in front of a door that had two Falchion insignias attached to the front of it: one in purple representing Daraen and a new one that had been affixed there earlier today in a teal blue to represent the room's newest occupant: a half-dragon prince from another world in the Fire Emblem universe named Kamui. In fact, the two of them as well as Robin and Chrom, who were lingering about nearby while also waiting for their black haired friend, were on their way to the front corridor of the Smash Mansion in order to meet Kamui as well as two other newcomers who were joining the ranks of the Super Smash Brothers as of today. The other newcomers were Kamui's female counterpart from another timeline, who went by the name Corrin, and a witch who had been voted into the roster by popular demand named Bayonetta.

“All right, done!” Daraen's voice came from within his room, half muffled by the door. A second later, the White Mage came out of his room hurriedly. “Sorry about that.” He apologized to his friends. “I forgot that today was the big day and I needed to make sure my room was all neat so that my new roommate won't be tripping all over my stuff when he finally comes in.”

“How did you forget that today was the day?” Chrom asked while raising an eyebrow in surprise. “Everybody in the mansion has been super excited about this day for a while – even Master Hand. Daraen gave a quick shrug in response.

“I've been kinda out of it, I suppose.” He said. “Other than that, Naga only knows why it managed to slip my mind. Either way, I'm done with the organization now, so we can finally head out!” The other members of the group briskly nodded their heads and turned toward the entrance to the building, beginning the slightly lengthy walk there.

Along the way, a question crossed Shulk's mind, which he offered to the rest of his friends. “Say, I don't suppose that Kamui might end up being the fifth member of our group of friends, maybe?” He said. “I mean, if he's nice and all, granted, but considering he'll be spending lots of time with Daraen due to the fact that they're going to be roommates, wouldn't it make sense if he joined our group?”

“I certainly don't mind having a fifth member of the team.” Robin chimed in afterward. “Just as long as he's a nice guy who gets along with all of us, there shouldn't be a reason why he can't join us in our fun.”

“That's if he gets along with all of us...” Daraen added in cautiously. “If he's argumentative, I don't think any of us will want him in the group.” The black haired tactician took a quick elbow to his side from Chrom, who chuckled as he looked over at the White Mage.

“Oh, don't be such a worrywart.” The Exalt replied. “I'm sure Kamui's a good person. After all, he's the chosen wielder of the Fire Emblem and was destined to save his world with it.” Chrom took a moment to scratch his head in confusion before continuing. “I still can't believe that the Fire Emblem is a sword in Kamui's world. I mean, it's a shield in ours.”

“I suppose the Fire Emblem is a lot like the Monado in that regard.” Shulk mused thoughtfully as his right hand reached up to wrap around the ruby blade that hung across his back. “The Monado supposedly takes the form that its wielder most needs it to be in, after all. Legend has it that the Monado used to be large enough for the Bionis itself to wield, but has since shrunken in size so that a Homs like me can wield it without difficulty. Not only that, but if my weapon of choice wasn't a broadsword, it likely would have taken that form instead of this one.” The blond swordsman finally lowered his hand before continuing. Robin's metal arms folded back behind his head as he continued walking, while Daraen idly batted his earring back and forth in his hand for a moment. “So I suppose that in your world, the Fire Emblem takes the appearance of a shield because it's being used to protect people, whereas on Kamui's world, it takes the form of a sword so that it can be used to fight with? It's only a hypothesis, really.”

“But a sword Fire Emblem could easily be used to protect people too!” Chrom protested. “I'm sure Kamui has had to protect people with his Fire Emblem, after all! Not only that, but what's the reason the Falchion couldn't be the Fire Emblem? It makes no sense! As far as I'm concerned, the Fire Emblem does whatever it pleases between worlds...” This spirited discussion about the Fire Emblem and its different forms continued all the way until the group reached the front hallway where the newcomers were supposed to be gathered.

As anticipated, there was a large crowd in the hallway, seemingly gathered in a circle around the newcomers. It was impossible to see the new faces at the center of the group, causing the friends to groan a little. Robin was the first to speak up, though.

“Oh for Naga's sake...” He muttered. “How are we supposed to get through that crowd to meet the newcomers?” Eyes quickly darted over to Daraen, but before the cyborg tactician could say anything, the black haired mage started gesticulating wildly.

“Hey, I'm sorry!” Daraen protested. “Again, I somehow forgot about today being the day and I needed to clean my room! We'll have plenty of time to chat with Kamui later when we head back to my room, I'm sure.” Before anybody could respond to what Daraen said, an unfamiliar feminine voice pierced the air.

“SORRY I'M LATE!” The woman who owned the voice yelled. A second later, the doors to the mansion swung open and four women entered the building. The one who had opened the door was a girl with long, whitish-blond hair pulled back by a black hairband and was wearing an outfit that looked like white armor with a blue cape draped diagonally across her torso, though her feet were notably devoid of shoes. Accompanying her were a tall woman with long curly purple hair with a horned tiara in it and a rather revealing purple and black outfit, a rather short woman with tealish blue hair laying over top a black headband as well as black armor and a dark purple capelet atop that, and a third woman between the blue haired and purple haired women in height with dark green, almost black hair that was short and had a feather in it held up by a thin thread of yarn as well as a tunic in dark green and gray, high brown boots, and a bright green capelet over top the tunic.

“There you are!” Master Hand's voice boomed as the doors closed behind the four women. “We were wondering when you would be arriving, Corrin!” After a moment, he addressed the other ladies. “And just who do you have with you here?” The tall lady with the purple hair practically fell atop the white-blond girl, who was more than likely Corrin, and proceeded to hold her in a hug as she spoke.

“I couldn't let my precious little sister go without somebody to accompany her to a scary new place...” The woman cooed. “With an organization name like 'Super Smash Brothers', I was afraid my dear little sister might get in over her head around so many boys.” One quick scan across the group later, the woman straightened herself up and continued speaking. “But I see there are quite a few smash sisters here too, and I'm so glad.”

“L-Lady Camilla, that doesn't really answer the question you were given...” The dark green haired girl replied quietly as she stared over at Master Hand nervously. “I-I think he wants to know our names...” The purple haired woman, who was apparently Camilla, just laughed it off.

“Of course, my dear~” Camilla answered before putting a hand on top of her sister's head. “This is my dear sister Corrin, who's going to be competing.” Her hand moved to her own bosom and then back to the other two women as she continued her introductions. “As Noemin mentioned, my name is Camilla, and those two back there are Beruka and Noemin, my retainers.” She pointed to each woman as she introduced them. Corrin sighed as she took over the conversation, moving forward out of Camilla's reach.

“My big sister was a bit mixed up about what this competition was, and she insisted she come with me to 'show those boys who's boss', in her own words.” The white-blond girl elaborated. “I told her that I didn't need anybody to accompany me here, but she came anyway. And of course, she can't go anywhere without her retainers, and thus they're here with her...”

“Well, I don't see why they can't stay for the welcome party.” Master Hand replied. “Of course, they'll have to go home after this because they weren't invited, but if they're family, they can stay for a little while and check out this place.”

“Fine by me.” Camilla answered back. “I'm sure my dear little sister is in good hands here anyway.” And with that, the welcome party continued as usual. Seeing as the group had split off a bit so that some people could start talking with Corrin, it was now easier for the four latecomers to blend in with the crowd and start mingling with the new competitors. Something had gotten Robin's attention, however, and so rather than pushing his way into the crowd, he wandered off toward the door to look into it. As such, he found himself face to face with Noemin now.

“...Noire?” He asked, looking up and down at the dark haired girl. “Is that really you? You certainly look a lot different than I remember you looking. That hair especially isn't the color I remember it being.” Noemin squeaked a little and backed up a step away from Robin as he addressed her.

“H-how do you know who I--” She began before clearing her throat and restarting. “...I mean, I-I'm sorry, but I have no idea who this Noire you're talking about is. My name is No-Noemin, like Lady Corrin said.” Robin frowned as his mechanical hands found their way to his hips.

“Seriously?” He asked incredulously as he raised an eyebrow. He had noticed her restarting the sentence and wasn't buying into this 'Noemin' business. As proof, he started reaching out for a charm that was hanging from Noemin's neck. “Well, I deliberately remember this Noire that I know of having a charm just like this one tha--”

“DON'T TOUCH THAT!” The dark haired girl shouted, all earlier trepidation disappearing in an instant. Her sudden emotional change caused Robin to jump back in surprise, and several people in the crowd turned their heads toward Robin and Noemin. Shulk made a guess as to what was going on and hurried over to try taking his fiance out of the situation.

“Sorry about him...” The Monado wielder apologized as he struggled to push Robin away from Noemin. “He's a curious little thing, but he meant no harm.” Robin frowned at being called a 'little thing', but then he grabbed Shulk's arm and pulled him aside so that the two of them could talk. Shulk started things off once the cyborg tactician had stopped moving. “...Robin, what on Bionis do you think you're doing?!”

“Shulk, that girl's from my world!” He protested. “I'm sure of it! Even that reaction to me trying to touch her charm was something that the girl I knew would do!”

“Why were you trying to touch it in the first place?” Shulk asked with concern. “It's not yours, after all.”

“I just wanted to bring it into view so she would drop the charade.” Robin said. “I didn't mean to make a big scene. But really, I know that's definitely Noire!”

“Who's Noire?” Shulk had never heard that name before, but he had to assume that she was another Shepherd. Robin was quick to confirm this as he began his explanation.

“She's one of the kids who came from the future back home in Ylisse.” He began. “She's the daughter of Tharja, a Plegian Dark Mage and Libra, a devout monk. The Noire I know has light blond hair like her father – her hair color's not unlike yours actually, Shulk.” The Monado wielder shook his head.

“Robin, I know you're not colour blind, but Noemin doesn't have light blond hair...” He groaned. “Her hair is a very dark green. If it really is Noire, she probably comes from a different Outrealm and has a different hair colour as a result.”

“Perhaps, but that doesn't change the fact that I know who she is.” Robin continued adamantly. “I want to know why she's going by the name Noemin now instead of her real name of Noire. From the sounds of her response to me calling her Noire, that's definitely still her real name.”

“THERE YOU ARE!” A thunderous voice came from behind Robin, causing him to spin around and face its owner. Sure enough, it was none other than Noemin. She pushed Shulk aside and grappled Robin by his cloak, pushing him up against the wall. “Who do you think you are, calling me by that name?! Where did you learn it anyway? Same place you stole that cloak you're wearing from?!” Robin briskly shook his head, but made no efforts to get Noemin off of him.

“I didn't steal this cloak!” He protested. “I'm the Avatar of Grima from my realm – this cloak is mine! I know a Noire from my own realm, and she looks just like you, but with blond hair.” Noemin gasped as she let go of the tactician and took a step back away from him, clasping her hands across her bosom.

“...R-Robin?” She asked, apparently reverting back to her more timid personality. “Is that you? What in Naga's name happened to you? I mean... You're Severa's father, right?” Robin looked confused by that claim, as did Shulk.

“...Severa?” The tactician repeated. “Who's Severa? The only future child I met of my own was Morgan.” Noemin scratched her cheek and looked at the ground away from Robin.

“O-oh yeah... You didn't meet Severa before _that_ happened, did you? Sorry...” She then looked back at Robin before continuing. “B-but you know what I'm talking about, don't you?” The tactician's eyes fell to the floor as he got reabsorbed into his past.

“...Cordelia...” He mumbled as he slumped down against the wall, saying nothing more. Shulk was immensely concerned as he looked between Noemin and Robin.

“So you really are from Robin's realm...” Shulk spoke quietly as he faced Noemin. “I take it Cordelia is the name of Robin's late wife, isn't it?” He walked over slowly and extended a hand for the green haired archer to take. “My name is Shulk. I'm a close companion of Robin's here. He's never mentioned Cordelia by name prior to now, but I was aware that he had a wife who died. Could you tell me more about what happened, perhaps?” A sudden rustling from against the wall got Shulk's attention, causing him to turn back around and face Robin, who was now standing up.

“No, I'll explain.” The tactician responded in a low voice. “It's time you learn the whole truth, Shulk – it's time you learn why I'm so protective of you...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2633 words. And there you have it. The answer to ~~all~~ a lot of your questions regarding Robin's wife and how it might affect Fire Emblem Fates. Because Severa died, Noire took her place going to Nohr! Noire was chosen for a couple of reasons, actually. 1) She shares a promoted class with Severa in the form of the Bow Knight, which Selena just so happens to canonically be in the chapter where you fight Camilla during the Birthright route, thus it wouldn't change things too much as a result and 2) even though Corrin comes from the Conquest route of the game, I still like thinking of what it would be like if she married Hayato and gave birth to Rhajat. That would be a very interesting first meeting between Noire and Rhajat, that's for sure. 
> 
> Next chapter's going to be a flashback giving the full story of Robin and Cordelia.
> 
> Anyway, further notes:
> 
> 1) I'll be discussing this in further detail later, but like the Robins, the Corrins come from divergent timelines as well. Female Corrin uses her English name and comes from the Conquest route, while male Corrin uses his Japanese name, Kamui, and comes from the Birthright route. The reason I went with this split is because of the game's boxart: female Corrin appears on the Nohr side of the artwork and male Corrin on the Hoshido side.  
> Also it won't come up for a while, but originally I was planning for the Nohrians to all use their English names and the Hoshidans to use their Japanese names, but I decided against this as it would end up with a (hypothetical) situation where Tharja's daughter Noire would be the mother of Syalla, and the whole original naming scheme gets thrown out the window. Therefore, everybody gets their English names besides Kamui. Sorry to all the purists who only like the Japanese names!  
> As for Corrin and Kamui's Yatos... that will be discussed later as well.
> 
> 2) Let's talk about Noemin. According to Behind the Name, 'Noemin' is the Biblical Greek version of the name 'Naomi'. Seeing as there's a lot of Greek influences in Nohr, I thought it was fitting for Noire's new name to draw inspiration from Greek too. Plus, it's quite similar to 'Noire', so that's a plus.  
> Also in regards to Noemin's hair color, originally I was going to use black, as that's what Noire's 'canon' hair color is (taking it from Tharja, of course), but her hair color would then overlap too much with Nyx and Kagero. Therefore, it's a dark green because her theme color is already green and would match her outfit, plus dark green provides a unique hair color for any child she would have *coughrhajatcough*.  
> Thirdly, yes, that is the Outlaw class outfit that she's supposed to be wearing, but in green. The closest approximation for her original class is a Hoshidan class, and so I should have probably given her a completely different class (like how Odin gets Dark Mage because the equivalent class to Owain's Myrmidon is the Hoshidan Samurai class when he's supposed to be sided with Nohr), but instead I went for the Outlaw class for the reason stated above: it promotes to the Bow Knight class and is a perfect replacement for Selena.


	2. A Tale of Doomed Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin finally tells the full story of how he loved and lost Cordelia, his late wife.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seeing as Robin is explaining his story here, it goes without saying that the whole thing is going to be in first person. Originally I was going to put it all in italics, but I realized that was probably going to be a bit hard to read, and so normal text it is. Oh well, hope you enjoy regardless!

It all began when I first woke up on the side of the road right after my memory had been erased - yes, I promise this actually has to do with the story of Cordelia, really. After all, the catalyst that got everything going between us in the first place was Chrom, the first person I saw when I opened my eyes. From the moment he offered me his hand to help me back to my feet, something in me knew that Chrom was a good person. I instinctively trusted him, and I kind of developed a crush on him. There was just so much that drew me to him that calling my feelings for him anything short of puppy love would be a lie.

Even after finding out that Chrom was the crown prince of Ylisse behind his sister Emmeryn did nothing to deter me from my quiet affections toward Chrom. No matter how much the other Shepherds had their reservations about me, Chrom insisted that I was a good person and trusted me. That only made me admire him even more. Even though Chrom was next in line for the throne, I was still trying to gather up the courage to admit my feelings to him, knowing full well that if he did accept me, there was no chance for an heir, seeing as we're both male.

However, things went sour after Emmeryn was kidnapped by the mad king Gangrel. The Shepherds all hurried out to Plegia in order to try to save the Exalt from being executed by him. I was a much cockier tactician back then. After all, my strategies were one of the only things I could be proud of, seeing as I didn't remember much of anything else besides being able to organize troops for battle and my own name. I created a plan to swoop in and save Emmeryn, sending the Shepherds in to fight off the Plegian soldiers while Phila's group made the actual efforts to rescue Emmeryn from where she was being held.

It all fell apart when Phila's entire troop got slaughtered and Emmeryn felt that she had no choice but to sacrifice herself. Emmeryn falling to her death had almost as big an impact on me as it did Chrom and Lissa, who were actually related to her. It was at that moment that I realized that even at my best, I wasn't perfect. Not everything was going to go perfectly according to plan all the time. I wish that the stakes had been lower when I made that realization, but it was indeed partly my fault that Ylisse had lost its Exalt.

That wasn't all I lost with Emmeryn's death, however. With her gone, I lost my chance at ever telling Chrom how much I cared about him. Chrom needed to ascend the throne now that his sister had perished, and so he was being pressured to provide Ylisse with an heir to the throne. Something that I would never be able to provide the people of Ylisse with if I selfishly pushed myself onto him.

Not only that, but Chrom already had eyes for somebody: a beautiful Pegasus Knight that had supported him throughout this entire ordeal - Sumia. She was always a really close emotional support for Chrom while he had to deal with all the bullshit going on in his life. She supported him even more than I did, and so I let go of my feelings toward Chrom knowing full well that Sumia really was ideal to be the future queen of Ylisse.

Anyway, this is where Cordelia comes into play. I haven't forgotten the reason I started telling this story, don't worry. Getting back to it, Cordelia was also a beautiful Pegasus Knight, just as lovely as Sumia even. However, the main difference between Sumia and Cordelia was the fact that Cordelia only pined over Chrom from afar. She hadn't made it clear to Chrom that she had feelings for him. He was a bit of a dunce in a way that you had to literally tell him you were interested in him for Chrom to show any kind of attachment to you further than just friendship... not too different from you, Shulk. ("...Just continue the story please, Robin..." came an exasperated response from the Monado wielder.)

Cordelia wasn't going to trample over things between Chrom and Sumia. After all, Sumia was her childhood friend, and she would rather suffer by herself than ruin a friendship. Therefore, Chrom and Sumia's wedding day didn't just destroy my dream of being with Chrom, but Cordelia's as well. We both tried to be happy for our friends, but deep down, we were a little jealous.

Cordelia was the one who started the conversation between us that got things rolling. She asked me why I was so gloomy on such a happy wedding day, to which I responded that I could see through her facade and figured out that she was quite gloomy herself. Realizing that she wasn't going to be able to lie to me about this, she admitted her feelings for Chrom to me, which prompted me to respond that I felt the same way. Cordelia was really surprised to hear that I, a male just like Chrom, had been romantically interested in him. We had that common thread to start things off between us. It was a friendship between third wheels at first, but after some shenanigans involving a homemade javelin and me calling her a 'genius', it quickly became something more than that. I still remember what she told me the day we confessed our love for each other as if I just heard it a minute ago.

_“Thank you... I thought nothing could warm my heart again. I shall love you above... all others... for the rest of my days.”_

She was beautiful and talented, and I couldn't believe that I had found somebody as wonderful as her to love. We quickly forgot that we had only found each other because of mutual attraction to another man, as we had found one another and were happy together. Because we had each other and fought side by side, our skills in battle only ever got better. I was super confident in my magic and swordplay, while Cordelia's Pegasus flew faster than ever. I was extremely happy, and I thought that my joy and my love would never end.

Things only seemed to get better after we met my daughter, Morgan... ("Second daughter, actually." Noemin chimed in. "Severa was older than Morgan.") Erm, my second daughter, I suppose. Sorry, I keep forgetting about Severa, considering I never met her before Cordelia was killed. Anyway, I digress. We found ourselves to the northernmost part of Regna Ferox, where we happened upon an area where we found a girl with short, bright red hair riding a Pegasus much like the one Cordelia rode. Upon further inspection, we found out that the girl had lost most of her memories, but what she could remember were her name, Morgan, and the fact that she greatly admired me, her father. Of course, as an amnesiac myself, I could definitely relate to Morgan's plight, and the fact that she was my future daughter made my heart swell with joy. Many of the other Shepherds had already met with their future children, so the fact that I finally met mine was exhilarating. I'm sure that if I had found Severa too before Cordelia's untimely demise, I would have been even happier. And finally, a girl with Cordelia's natural talent as well as being a budding strategist in her own right was definitely a welcome addition to the Shepherds, and Morgan quickly showed us that she wasn't helpless on the battlefield.

One day, us Shepherds came across a mountain in our path, and on the other side was a Plegian village that we had been called out to help with. Nothing had seemed fishy about their request as far as I was concerned; they were just people in need of liberation from bandits. The mountain was a completely different story, however. Everybody got an ominous feeling about the place, me included. I told everybody to stay together in case the brigands were waiting on this mountain to pick us off one by one. Believe it or not, I somehow ended up being the one to not follow my own advice, and I got separated from the group after trying to get some spider webbing out of my face and stumbled down a short cliff. Seeing as I was at the back of the Shepherds' group, nobody noticed that I had fallen, and so it was up to me to regroup with my friends. At a time like that, I kind of wish that I had a flying steed like Cordelia or Morgan's Pegasi so I could just bound right up the hill and make it back to the Shepherds without anybody noticing that I had disappeared.

Honestly, I should have stayed put and waited for the Shepherds to retrace their steps looking for me, but I was too stubborn. I wanted to get back to the group as soon as I could, seeing as Naga only knows what kind of trouble waited for a lone warrior like me. Of course, I didn't even know the half of it. As if to make things even worse, it started raining. We were on the windward side of the mountain, and so I should have expected there to be rain. Not wanting to get sick trying to find the Shepherds, plus the fact that it was starting to get late, I ducked into a small cave to stay dry from the weather. I was thinking I could probably just camp out there until either the Shepherds found me or the sun came up again and I could continue my own search.

Unfortunately, that cave was where a trap had been set up. A trap set up specifically for me, as well. The spider web was set up right in front of me to try to separate me from the group, and the weather had lured me right into the location where my soon-to-be captors were hiding. I had settled down at the foot of the cave, just out of reach of the rain, and was getting ready to fall asleep. A strange growling noise had caught my attention from behind me, and I wondered if I had accidentally stumbled onto some kind of wild creature's home, such as a bear. Oh, if only it had been just a bear. Instead, four Revenants had appeared around me. The surprise ambush from the Risen had made me scramble about to find my tome and Levin Sword, but right before I managed to grab the latter, my body stopped moving on me. I was frozen in place by some kind of magic.

It turns out that two powerful Grimleal sorcerers had been tasked with finding and capturing me for Validar after hearing that the Shepherds were headed in the direction of that village. The Revenants were poised to strike me with the intent of knocking me out so that I could be quietly dragged back to the Grimleal's hideout where my father was waiting for me. I clenched my eyes shut, expecting the worst.

Before I was attacked, I heard a familiar voice call out my name. My eyes shot open again as I turned in the direction that voice had come from, seeing that Cordelia had found me. Right behind her was Morgan, also mounted on her Pegasus. Cordelia had taken it upon herself to attack the Revenants that had surrounded me while Morgan tried to deal with the sorcerers that were commanding them in hopes that they would drop their freezing spell that they had cast on me. Four Revenants were pretty easy for Cordelia to deal with, and she had managed to render them back into piles of undead goo quickly enough. A moment later, I could feel the dark magic on my body fading as Morgan struck against the sorcerers with her Arcwind tome.

I shouted Cordelia's name thankfully as I leaped up into her arms the moment I could move again. She embraced me tightly and told me how scared she was when she had found out that I had been separated from the group. I was practically on the brink of tears after being rescued from certain doom by my beloved wife.

I had completely forgotten that Revenants could reform themselves if they weren't totally destroyed. Cordelia was more concerned with getting them away from me than destroying them outright. We were both so absorbed with our meaningful reunion that neither of us noticed the Revenants looming until it was too late. A giant fist was swung at Cordelia's Pegasus, knocking her off the steed and sending both of them to the ground. I gasped as I noticed that I was surrounded once more, and I still didn't have my weapons on me. That's what prompted the sacrifice.

Cordelia screamed my name as she threw herself into the group of Revenants, shoulder checking me so that I got flung out of the middle of their attack. A giant hand grabbed her, as it had been aiming for me, plucking her off the ground. Cordelia struggled to get away as Morgan screeched for her mother, trying to come to her rescue. I too would have tried to attack the Revenant that had grabbed Cordelia, but I still hadn't grabbed my Levin Sword, and it was way too far from where I was sitting to grab right now.

And that's when it happened... The most horrifying thing that I had ever seen. The monster started _eating_ Cordelia alive. It chewed off her limbs, causing her to scream in agony, followed by gnashing at her torso, and finally ripping her head off. Morgan screamed in pain herself with each bite the monster took as her very existence started to become erased. She tried casting Arcwind on the Revenant that was eating her mother, but she missed due to how much pain she was in. Morgan disappeared a moment later, shrieking at the top of her lungs. The Revenant was done with its meal, dropping Cordelia's mangled and mostly eaten corpse in front of me.

I was beyond terrified. I was completely paralyzed by horror as I watched the two people I cared about most in my life die in front of my eyes - one from being eaten and the other from being erased from time because she hadn't been born yet. Everything that happened after that was fuzzy because I couldn't process this terrible tragedy that had just occurred, but sometime after I blacked out, the rest of the Shepherds had arrived and saved me.

Even after I woke up, I had been scarred badly by what I had seen and was hardly the same person I had been earlier that day. I went completely nonverbal for several days as that terrible imagery plagued me over and over again. There was no way I could erase it from my mind - I had lost everything that was precious to me. Chrom had noticed how shaken I was, and on the third day after the tragedy, following several sleepless nights, he confronted me.

"...Robin, I want you to go back home to Ylisstol." Chrom demanded of me. "What you saw was terrible, I know. However, you're not providing anything for the Shepherds like this, and keeping you with us when you can't fight or strategize is adding dead weight to our squad. Dead weight that Validar is actively pursing, as well. I don't blame you if you decide to hang up your tactician robe for good after what you saw. Please, just go home where you can recover in relative safety. Nobody will blame you for doing so." At first, I highly considered doing so, but something about Chrom's words made me reconsider. Not only that, but I knew that Chrom was no military genius. During those several days that I had spent in bed mentally reeling from my tragedy, the Shepherds had barely managed to defend the camp. They needed their tactician to lead them - they needed me. Fighting against Validar without a sound strategy was just asking for the entire squad to get wiped out.

"...No." I finally said my first word in days as I responded to Chrom's demand. "I'm... I'm not leaving... the Shepherds... behind. I'm... the Shepherds'... tactician. You... need me." Even though my words were slow and shaky, Chrom could hear my conviction in them. He knew that I was going to do whatever it took to prevent any further casualties to our army. Because of that, he didn't object to me turning him down, in spite of Frederick trying to convince him otherwise, and I took the helm as the Shepherds' Grandmaster tactician once more.

My strategies were less brash and more focused on wearing our enemies down slowly after Cordelia's death, but my cautiousness resulted in no further lives being lost. On the battlefield, I was an unstoppable strategist. It was the only thing that I still had now that I was without a family. I was a genius on the battlefield, but a recluse at camp. I didn't want any more lives being lost - not even my own. That's why I hesitated to give Grima the final blow during our last battle, allowing Chrom to do it instead. I know now that it was a mistake not killing Grima myself, but at the time, I was more concerned with saving lives in the immediate present. That lack of foresight has been eating at me ever since Reflet's dragon fled to my realm and started causing trouble...

("Robin..." Shulk looked immensely regretful that he had forced the tactician to tell this story. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have been so nosy. That doesn't sound like a story you want to remember...") No no, it's all right. I shouldn't have been withholding it from you in the first place. But now that it's off my chest, I hope you understand me a little better now. Ever since Cordelia died, I've been super paranoid about losing people who I've gotten close to. I mean, I know you're a capable fighter in your own regard, but so was Cordelia and that happened to her. If I lost you, I don't know what I would do, honestly... ("You won't lose me." Shulk walked over to Robin and gave him a hug. "I'll be sure to be careful myself. For your sake.")

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3116 words. Quite the story, huh? Next chapter's going to shift focus back to Daraen and him meeting up with his new roommate Kamui at last. Notes:
> 
> 1) As far as Robin knows, Emmeryn is dead. He never ~~downloaded the Spotpass DLC~~ found Emmeryn after her fall to realize that she's still alive. And yes, she is actually still alive... somewhere.
> 
> 2) The 'shenanigans' revolving around a homemade javelin and Robin calling Cordelia a 'genius' is obviously a reference to Robin and Cordelia's support conversations. Seeing as I wanted to focus on the parts of the story not already told in the canon, I just truncated those supports down to a mere mention.


	3. White Mage and White Dragon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daraen finally meets up with his new roommate and brings them back to their room to show Kamui around the place. However, Kamui ends up sticking his nose where he shouldn't. Will he be okay, or does he end up badly hurt because of this?

Daraen had no idea where his friends had run off to. After making a scene with Noemin earlier, Robin had disappeared off the radar, likely with Shulk in tow. Not only that, but Chrom had gotten lost in the crowd of fighters and assistants himself trying to mingle with the newcomers. Therefore, the White Mage was now alone and didn't know what to do about this. Should he try pushing through the crowds to look for Chrom? Or should he try finding the newcomers to say hello to them?

This inner turmoil was quickly brought to a halt as somebody backed up into Daraen, causing him to turn around. It was a new face that he had never seen before, belonging to a young man with nearly neck length whiteish-blond hair, pointed ears, an outfit that looked identical to the one Corrin was wearing, and a distinct lack of shoes. Seeing as the outfit was the same as another newcomer that had already made themselves known to him, the White Mage immediately realized that this was one of the people he had been looking for and smiled.

"Ah, you must be Kamui!" Daraen took both of the dragon prince's hands and shook them briskly in his own. The young prince was momentarily dazed by the greeting from somebody he had never seen before, but the black haired mage was quick to continue with his own introduction. "My name is Daraen. I'm going to be your roommate here at the mansion." Once it was clear who this guy was enthusiastically greeting him, the confusion quickly was replaced with relief and cheerfulness.

"Oh, so _you're_ my roommate!" Kamui confirmed. "I was kind of wondering about you when Master Hand made the first greetings between everybody and had mentioned that you were among the individuals who hadn't arrived yet. It's nice to finally meet you. I take it you figured out who I was from that scene with Corrin and her sister earlier." Kamui looked a little bitter as he mentioned the princess and her sister, which instantly prompted a question from Daraen.

"Isn't she technically your sister too?" He asked. "I mean, not that particular Camilla, but a Camilla from your own realm." Daraen was basing this hypothesis off of the fact that he, Reflet, and Robin were supposedly all the same person in their own realms and had the same people existing within them, but who led slightly different lives due to the tiny differences in events between the realms. Therefore, seeing as Corrin and Kamui had essentially the same thing happening between them, it felt a little confusing to Daraen that Kamui would feel some kind of bitterness toward them. Kamui answered this by slowly shaking his head.

"Not anymore..." He sighed. "I mean, I grew up in Castle Krakenburg with my Camilla acting as my older sister, but I gave up any ties to the Nohrian royal family when I sided with Hoshido. My Camilla tried desperately to bring me back to Nohr because she loved me in spite of my treachery toward her country, but my heart lay with Hoshido and I never looked back."

"So I take it that because Corrin has such a doting relationship with her Camilla, she must have sided with Nohr in her realm." Daraen placed a hand on his chin as guessed at the meaning of what Kamui was implying. After another moment, realization hit the White Mage as he figured out what this was implying about the relationship between the two dragon nobles. "...Wait, that means that you two are enemies, then!" Kamui quickly shook his head.

"No, we shouldn't be." He answered succinctly. "The war between our countries is over in both of our realms and we are both living in times of peace, I'm fairly certain. Master Hand wanted to make sure that Corrin and I didn't start a feud here in the mansion because of bad blood back home." Daraen was silently wondering to himself if he was asking too many questions of Kamui, but this was an interesting subject matter to him all the same. He had read about the legendary kingdoms of Hoshido and Nohr and how they had been in a war with each other, but none of the records could determine which side had won the war. Therefore, he continued pressing for details.

"Let me get this straight. In your realm, Hoshido won the war, whereas in Corrin's realm, Nohr won the war." If that was true, Daraen understood why the books written on the subject matter could not agree as to which side won the war: depending on which side the dragon prince or princess of that respective realm sided with, that particular side ended up winning the war. In one realm, it would result with Hoshido taking Castle Krakenburg, whereas in another, it would result with Nohr seizing Castle Shirasagi. Kamui nodded his head.

"Yeah, that's right." He explained. "I can't believe the war went so differently between my realm and Corrin's." Even for Daraen as well, it was a little hard to believe that one person could turn the tides of war so much. Kamui and Corrin had to be tactical masterminds to hold that much sway over which side won a war. If that was really the case, Daraen couldn't wait to befriend the dragon prince and share tactics and strategies with him. That's when it occurred to the White Mage that he and Kamui had just been standing around in the middle of the hallway this whole time. As such, Daraen reached out and took one of the dragon prince's hands, smiling the whole time.

"Anyway, you're probably tired from standing around this whole time without shoes on." He nodded toward the other's bare feet. "Let's head out to our bedroom so you can get settled into the place. After that, we can start getting to know each other better, seeing as I'm sure you've got some interesting stories to tell, and I'm the same way." Kamui smiled at the offer and allowed Daraen to keep holding his hand.

"Sounds good." The prince replied cheerfully. "I can't wait to get settled in and start really feeling like this place is my new home!" As such, he allowed himself to get tugged along behind Daraen as the tactician pulled him away to the Newcomer Hall. The dragon prince had made a pretty good first impression on Daraen, so he was sure that his friends wouldn't object too much to adding him to their group of friends. After all, he was as friendly as the others had hoped he would be, and probably wouldn't be the kind of person to pointlessly argue with any of the other members.

It didn't take long for Daraen to lead Kamui back to their suite, and he quickly opened up the room so that the prince could see where he was staying. Even though Kamui was a prince, he was still astounded by how large the suite was. Even though only two individuals ever lived in any given suite, they could fit at least a dozen people living together in these rooms comfortably and have them all sleep somewhere besides the floor. After all, some of the fighters came from a high social standing or were super famous (such as the Mario brothers), so they needed to be treated well. That and it was a giant mansion that everybody lived in, so of course it would be luxurious.

"So, the left half of the suite is mine and the right half is yours." Daraen addressed immediately before Kamui began to wander around the suite. "I moved all of my stuff to the left half earlier, which is why it took me so long to come out to the main corridor to greet you." That and the bed he always slept on was on that side of the room, which was what prompted him to decide that half of the room was his. He was going to miss sprawling everything out through the room, but there was still plenty of space even on half of the suite for all of his stuff.

"Right side, got it." Kamui replied almost dismissively as he began wandering away to the left. Daraen had to do a double take as he realized that Kamui was going in the wrong direction.

"Hold on, I said right side!" Daraen protested as he hurried after Kamui. "You're going left!" However, seeing as Daraen had only bothered to pick up the side of the suite that Kamui was going to be staying on (in the interest of not keeping his friends any longer than he had already done so), there were books all over the floor, and one of them was directly under the black haired tactician's foot as he chased after his roommate. As a result, Daraen ended up slipping on said book and falling face first onto the floor, knocking the wind out of his lungs thanks to landing wrong atop another book. Somehow Kamui managed to dodge all of the books as he ambled about the room, all while Daraen struggled to pick himself up off the floor after his spill. Eventually, the dragon prince found himself in front of a door, staring at it for a few seconds before asking about it.

"What's behind this door?" He asked innocently, looking around until he found Daraen prone on the floor. A look of concern crossed the dragon prince's face as he looked like he was going to go back to help pluck the fallen tactician off the ground. "Whoa, are you all right over there?" Kamui asked.

"I'll be fine..." Daraen groaned as he attempted to rise back to his feet slowly. "Now please, that's the closet... There's no reason for you to go poking around in th--" The tactician was interrupted as Kamui reached out to open up the door. "Wait, don't open that!" He shouted in response.

"The closet, huh? I wonder just how big it is in here." Kamui ignored Daraen's plea as he opened up the door. Almost immediately after he did so, Kamui was face to face with some large, shadowy mass that was taller than he was, which quickly seemed to throw itself at the dragon prince, and he shouted with surprise as he got inundated by the large mass falling atop him.

"KAMUI!" Daraen shouted as he hurried over to the mass and started throwing it aside to get at the prince underneath. However, Kamui had been immediately knocked out after getting buried, so he didn't hear the tactician call out his name.

\---

" _You fool..._ " A voice that sounded oddly like King Garon's and yet clearly didn't belong to the former Nohrian king at the same time resonated through Kamui's dream. " _Why did you let this happen? You are an incompetent servant._ "

"I'm sorry..." Another male voice that Kamui thought sounded familiar but couldn't quite place replied to the first one. It was far gentler in tone than the first voice, and almost panicky sounding. "I was caught off guard. I will not allow it next time."

" _Do not concern yourself with that distraction anymore, child._ " The first voice answered. " _He will not be bothering us any longer. In fact, I will be subjugating him now._ " After that, the voice faded out. Kamui was concerned about what he just heard, due to how ominous it sounded. Who was being subjugated, him? Was this a premonition of the future, forewarning him to something that was going to happen eventually?

Just then, distracting him from his thoughts, the dragon prince felt an immense pain in his chest, as if he had been stabbed through the heart. As much as he wanted to scream out in agony, something was preventing him from doing so. Therefore, he continued suffering in silence for a moment until the pain completely faded away to nothing. Just what had caused that horrible pain, and why couldn't he react to it? There was dark magic involved, that much was certain, but Kamui was unable to wrap his head around the magnitude of its power at this time.

\---

Kamui had no idea how long he had been knocked out, but when he finally reawakened, he found himself laying on a comfortable bed, staring up at the ceiling of the suite he now called his bedroom. A hand subconsciously reached up to the spot where he had felt he had been stabbed, but quickly fell upon unbroken armor. Certainly nothing could have stabbed him without going through his armor, and so the prince was convinced that what he had felt was nothing more than a premonition. As such, he decided to say nothing about it as he got up and started wandering back to the other side of the room where Daraen was sure to be. Kamui wanted to ask about that mass in the closet, after all.

Not two seconds after Kamui stepped into sight, Daraen's head whirled around to face the dragon prince and he smiled with relief. The tactician set his book down that he had been reading after placing a bookmark in the spot where he had stopped before standing to face Kamui. "Ah, you're finally awake again!" He said. "Are you all right? Are you sure you don't have a concussion or any other kind of bodily harm done?" Talk about getting right to the point. Kamui patted himself down in a few spots before giving his answer.

"Yeah, I think I'm fine." He answered slowly. "After all, I'm wearing good quality Nohrian armor." Kamui tapped his shoulder with a fist twice, letting the sound resonate off his armor. "Whatever the heck fell on me wasn't strong enough to pierce it."

"About that..." Daraen's face got a little red with embarrassment, and he started playing with his red earring idly in one hand as he spoke, as if it was a nervous gesture. "I stashed a bunch of books into my closet that had been on your side of the room in order to get them out of your way. I didn't want you opening the closet door because I knew I had thrown them in haphazardly and was afraid that the stack would fall on you. Sure enough, they did. Sorry about that..." A sigh of relief, quickly followed by an equally embarrassed chuckle escaped Kamui while he rubbed the back of his head after hearing what had fallen on top of him.

"No, I should be sorry." He admitted. "I got so distracted that I hadn't realized that I was on the wrong side of the room. I totally thought that was my closet I was going into, and I got thrown totally off guard by the tidal wave of books as a result." If he had taken away anything from this experience though, it was the fact that Daraen, even though he was really nice, was both a bibliophile to almost an extreme as well as a huge slob. Even as Kamui took another quick glance around the room, he realized that there were still books all over the place even though a stack large enough to knock him out had been stashed in the closet already. That prompted his next question. "...Just how many books do you have in the whole room, anyway?" Daraen's face lit up a little as he prepared for his answer.

"Oh, hundreds~" The black haired tactician answered with a bit of a singsong tone to his voice. "I just can't get enough of books! Even though I lost my memories of my childhood, I'm sure that I spent plenty of time with my head in books to become as talented a tactician as I am now." He quickly snapped out of his reverie as he thought back on something that had been mentioned prior, stepping around several books to get over to where Kamui was before speaking. "Wait a second... You mentioned that your armor is Nohrian... But didn't you say that you had sided with Hoshido during the war?" Kamui's long ears wiggled slightly before he answered.

"Ah, about that." He said, putting one finger on his chin as his eyes darted up toward the ceiling. "I've always been comfortable wearing this armor. I even wore it as I was helping to command the Hoshidan army through the land. People just kind of took it for granted, honestly - me included. It's more my armor now than it is something that can be associated with Nohr at this point." As Kamui's eyes darted back down, he was quick to notice that Daraen's eyes were sparkling a little after hearing that answer, but the dragon prince soon realized that it wasn't the armor that he was so enthralled with.

"I knew it!" The White Mage cried out excitedly. "You really are an expert tactician too!" He then took another step forward and grabbed both of Kamui's hands before resuming his enthusiastic speech. "Please, discuss tactics with me! I want to hear about all the amazing things that you've done as a strategist for the Hoshidan army! In exchange, I have a bunch of my own stories about my tactical exploits leading the Shepherds back home in Iris. Is that a deal?" Kamui was stunned by the suddenness of the suggestion for a second, but once that daze wore off, a large smile found its way to the prince's face. He knew he had a true friend in Daraen already, and was prepared to spend the rest of the day talking with his new pal for the rest of the night about strategy and whatever else came to mind. Kamui's worries that he wouldn't fit in with the other Super Smash Brothers had quickly been assuaged by this super nice and enthusiastic tactician on the same day that he had first set foot in the building.

That strange premonition be damned, Kamui was going to enjoy himself in this place, he just knew it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3015 words. All I can say is... Daraen, what a slob. Then again, Kamui is a bit of an airhead. Next chapter, we finally get our first Smash match with Kamui and meet a couple more important people. Notes:
> 
> 1) I assume that every different realm has writing about the Avatar of that respective realm, and thus there's probably plenty of disagreement from one text to another about which side won the war. Daraen, huge bookworm he is, has probably read accounts from a plethora of different realms and disagree with each other in regards to how the war turned out, hence his confusion.
> 
> 2) No, Kamui isn't a seer like Shulk now, nor will he be experiencing that dream over and over again like Robin and his premonition. That dream is a one-time deal that will make more sense as time goes on.


	4. Friends and Family Gathering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamui is accepted into Daraen's group of friends and chats with them for a little while before he goes to fight his first Smash match against Corrin and Bayonetta, but not before a few familiar faces show up to say hello and root Kamui on.

"I want you to meet my friends." Daraen said cheerfully as he swept his hand out in front of him, pointing to his three other companions while having an arm wrapped around his newest friend, the Hoshidan prince Kamui. "I'll introduce you to them quickly, Kamui. First, we have Chrom, with the blue hair. He's the crown prince of the kingdom of Ylisse, soon to take the throne with his wife Reflet, who's also a competitor but is currently sitting out of the tournament due to the fact that she's having an abnormal pregnancy. I'm fighting in the tournament in her place." Chrom waved gently to the dragon prince for a few seconds before Daraen continued the introductions.

"The shortest of the three with the metal armor and white hair is Robin." He continued. Robin frowned slightly at being called the shortest, especially when Daraen was a little shorter than he was, but instead of arguing about it, he just huffed loudly and crossed his metal hands. At least Daraen hadn't said that his body was metal and only called his frame 'armor'. Of course, that was short lived as Daraen gave a bit more information about the Cyborg Tactician. "He's the Avatar of Grima from a different realm than me or Reflet. He used to look just like me, but with white hair and that purple robe, but he lost most of his body after being killed by machines from Shulk - who I'll introduce in a moment - from his world before being rebuilt as one of them."

"Excuse me, Daraen, but I'm still human." Robin retorted snappily. "I may have the body of a Mechon, but my brain and my heart are still human. Take care not to dehumanize me when you're introducing me to people who don't know anything about me." Shulk set one hand atop Robin's shoulder and shook it slightly so that the white haired tactician knew the hand was there before speaking up.

"Robin, you know Daraen doesn't mean any harm by it." The seer responded. "Besides, what he says is true. You can't exactly deny it, you know." Daraen shook his head anyway as he continued speaking.

"No, Robin's right. I was a bit insensitive there." He then quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, that's Shulk who just spoke up to Robin there. He's Robin's roommate and fiance. They care a lot for each other, and you rarely see them apart. As for Shulk himself, he hails from a completely different universe than the rest of us - one where people live on giant titans and there isn't such a thing as a Fire Emblem. Robin's Mechon body was also created on this world. His major schtick is that the sword hanging off his back not only keeps him alive, but also gives him incredible abilities like being able to change how he fights, creating auras that can make any sword cut through even the toughest metal or protecting a person beneath a shield from harm, and, most interestingly, allowing him to foresee the future before it happens."

"Wow, really?" Kamui looked astounded by the claim that Shulk had future sight powers. He stepped forward so that he was practically in Shulk's face before he resumed speaking. "If that's so, tell me how the Smash match that's about to begin is going to go - my debut match with Corrin and Bayonetta, I mean. Do I win? Or do I get clobbered by the other two?" Shulk briskly shook his head and took a step backward so that the dragon prince wasn't directly in his face anymore.

"My powers don't work like that, Kamui." Shulk replied. "I don't control my foresight - it just goes off whenever it feels like. Usually I only get visions of the future whenever something bad is going to happen rather soon, and they're limited when I'm out on the tournament battlefield in order to prevent me from cheating my way to victory every match." Kamui's dragon ears drooped a little with disappointment, but he quickly recovered from that letdown and stepped back away from the blond seer.

"Ah, I see." The prince said calmly. "I completely understand Master Hand's logic in doing that, yeah. I'm sure in a safe place like this, however, you don't get visions of bad things happening all that often, do you?" Shulk's eyes darted to the ground as he knitted his hands together awkwardly.

"I... get visions more often than you would think." He admitted. "Part of it is due to the fact that I'm cursed." Shulk lifted his head back up so that the dragon prince could see into his eyes. Right now, they were a bright magenta in hue. "You see... my natural eye colour is actually blue with a tinge of green. The closer my eyes are to red in hue, the more dark magic exists within my body, threatening to flare up and debilitate me. It's happened once before, but Daraen was able to remove enough dark magic so I could function normally again." Kamui gave a look of concern.

"Your eyes look kinda red to me right now..." He stated. "Are you sure you're not going to have another flare up any time soon, going by what you just told me?" Robin stepped between Shulk and Kamui and nodded briskly.

"We're aware." He stated. "I'm planning to remove a lot of the dark magic from Shulk's body using a Nosferatu tome tonight after the match. We would have done it sooner, but we wanted to see your match. I'm sure we have enough time to spare so that we can see the match and then get back to the room to deal with this magic before it gets to be too much."

"Don't worry about those two, Kamui." Chrom chimed in. "They've been dealing with this for a while, so they've got a pretty good feel for when the flare ups occur by now. Instead, you should be focusing on the match that you're about to participate in." This seemed to be enough to cause Kamui to smile once more, and he turned to face Chrom before speaking to him.

"Yeah, you're right." He said. "I can't wait to get started! I wanna show everybody what I'm capable of! That and I want to show off my new and improved sword!" The dragon prince unsheathed the weapon that he had attached to his waist - a golden sword that was glowing and had spikes along the edges of the blade that were rotating slowly, giving it the illusion of looking like a chainsaw. Shulk's eyes seemed to light up immediately as he looked at Kamui's weapon.

"Wow, is that the Fire Emblem from your world?" He asked excitedly. "I've never seen a weapon anything like that before! A cross between a sword and a chainsaw, with fire billowing out of it too! If it weren't for the fact that you're about to go out onto the tournament battlefield, I would definitely ask to take a look at it!" Daraen laughed quickly and nudged Kamui in the side.

"Don't mind him." The White Mage stated. "It's kind of hard to tell from first glance, but Shulk's actually a weapons enthusiast and a huge nerd. Back home, before he realized he was the chosen wielder of his sword, the Monado, he used to make weapons for a living. As such, he's very interested in the different weapons that all the different Smash fighters use. I'm surprised that Link even tolerates him still, considering he keeps practically an entire armory on him." Shulk frowned and crossed his arms in response to what Daraen said.

"You say that like I pester Link to death on a daily basis just to look at his weapons." The Monado wielder retorted. "For your information, I'm always very polite whenever I ask to look at Link's weaponry, and I treat anything I touch with the utmost care. I actually only ask to look at Link's weapons every once in a while, so as to not overwhelm him." The frown quickly disappeared from Shulk's face as he looked back at Kamui's sword. "So, going back to my question from before Daraen interrupted, is that the Fire Emblem from your world?"

"It is now." Kamui grinned as he glanced over his sword yet again. "Somehow Master Hand was able to tap into the powers that my sword and Corrin's had and combined them to unlock the true form of the Yato for both of us. After all, in my world, I only managed to have two of the other four legendary weapons resonate with my Yato, which let it take on the form of the Blazing Yato. Corrin's Yato resonated with the other two legendary weapons that mine hadn't, and so her sword was the Shadow Yato. Master Hand took the resonating powers from both Blazing Yato and Shadow Yato and combined them, unlocking the true power of the sword for both of us - the Omega Yato that you see here. The true, full powered Fire Emblem..." He couldn't help but give a sigh before he continued. "I'm still in awe that Master Hand had that kind of power. I get that he wanted to make sure that Corrin and I would fight exactly the same and thus gave us identical weapons, but how he managed to do it was incredible..."

"Yeah, his powers are unbelievable..." Robin chimed in as he rubbed the back of his neck over the location where he knew his neck plug was. "He's done everything he can to make sure this tournament runs as smoothly as possible, including making sure nobody cheats or gets hurt, and there's some powerful magic involved doing so. It's a good thing he's a benevolent guy, as we would be in big trouble if he was an enemy."

"And yet that's precisely what happened during the Subspace War that took place during the previous tournament." Daraen chimed in knowingly. "Tabuu somehow managed to take control of Master Hand, and sent the previous tournament's contestants on a wild goose chase across several universes in order to save the entire multiverse. It's a miracle that those contestants managed to defeat Tabuu and saved the entire multiverse from whatever Tabuu was planning to do with it." Everybody stared at the black haired tactician like he had two heads, causing him to chuckle nervously and bat his earring around in his hand as he explained himself. "What's with that look?" He asked. "I read about it in a book. Yeah, people have actually written detailed, peer reviewed books on the subject matter already despite the fact that it happened so recently. I can give any of you the texts if you're really interested."

"That's quite all right." Shulk nodded slowly. "I'm sure books like those could be found in the library if we were really interested in finding out more. What I'm curious about is what prompted you to look into it, Daraen." The black haired mage finally dropped his hand back to his side as he spoke up again.

"Ah, I read about it when I first got accepted to replace Reflet." He smiled calmly while talking. "I wanted to find out as much about this tournament as possible to know what I was getting myself into, and I was surprised to find out that Smashers had been involved in a war. Therefore, curiosity got the best of me and I found several books that detail the whole fiasco as well as contain theories and eyewitness reports. It's really sobering reading material, but interesting all the same." That seemed to be enough to kill the conversation for several seconds, as nobody knew what to say next. However, they would have plenty to talk about after a shrill, feminine voice belonging to none of the five men gathered cut through the dead air.

"Papa!" The voice belonged to a little girl who had come into view and practically tackled Kamui to the ground when she hugged him. She had light blue hair pulled up into a bun and appeared to have the same armor as Kamui on, but with a blue neckerchief instead of a cape. The girl continued to giggle as she snuggled up to her father's waist. "I'm so glad that I managed to find you before your big debut match!" Kamui smiled as he set a hand atop the girl's head and looked up at the rest of the group, who was staring at the dragon prince like he had two heads.

"...That's your daughter?" Chrom was the first to speak up as he looked between the two of them. "Remind me how old you are again, Kamui?" Before the prince could answer, another voice chimed in and drew everybody's attention.

"Kana, there you are!" The owner of the voice was a young man with light blue hair that fell over one eye and wore a blue and white tunic with large shoulder guards in white and gold. "Don't run off on me like that! I was worried that I would lose you in a big place like this..." The girl, who had been called Kana, looked back at the other boy and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Not my fault you're slow, Shigure!" She taunted. "I found Papa and I wanted to see him as soon as possible! What's taking you so long anyway?" The young man, called Shigure by Kana, sighed and facepalmed before looking at the other people gathered.

"My utmost apologies for my little sister's behavior." He said with a polite bow. "She just wanted to see her father here, but she's a bit excitable." The four young men that Shigure had been addressing practically had their jaws hit the floor as they looked at the older child of their newest friend.

"...He's almost the same age as Kamui, surely." Robin spoke quietly. "Does that mean that Shigure and Kana come from the future as well?" Kamui gently pushed Kana off him before dusting himself off for a second and clearing his throat.

"Heh, not the most elegant of introductions, but yeah, these are my kids." The prince chuckled with embarrassment. "As for Chrom's question, I'm twenty years old. And to answer your question, Robin, no they don't. Instead, they grew up in what we call the Deeprealms where time flows faster than it does in this realm. Shigure's the elder of the two, obviously, but in this realm he was only born less than a year before Kana. He spent more time in the Deeprealms, however, which resulted in him being physically older by several years." Kana crossed her arms and pouted.

"It's stupid how ten months more in the Deeprealms resulted in Shigure being five years older than me now..." She complained, casting a dirty glare back at her older brother, who promptly ignored it as he continued speaking.

"It's a bit surreal that I'm so close in age to Father now." He chuckled. "I'm seventeen years old, eighteen in June. That of course means that Kana is twelve years--" Shigure quickly got interrupted by Kana, who was waving her arms around angrily.

"Twelve and a HALF!" She whined. "I'm gonna be thirteen in two months! Don't make me sound younger than I really am, Shigure! Just because you're older doesn't mean you can make fun of me! Teenagers like you are so _rude_!" Her brother rolled his eyes and took a quiet breath before correcting himself.

"...Kana is twelve _and a half_ years old." He said begrudgingly before shooting Kana back with a dirty look of his own. "Happy now, Kana? You shouldn't be having a temper tantrum in front of Father's friends, you know..." Cue another couple seconds of silence that was quickly broken by Shulk giggling merrily, causing everybody to look over at him.

"It's kind of cute seeing you two siblings arguing~" The Monado wielder chuckled. "Surely you two love each other a lot, don't you?" Kana quickly scrunched her nose up and started complaining again.

"Eww, that's gross!" She protested! "I don't love Shigure! I don't wanna kiss him and do all that mushy talking stuff with him! He's my brother!" Kamui laughed for a moment as he pushed Kana back into Shigure's arms, who quickly cradled his little sister up against his chest, surprisingly without protest from the blue haired girl.

"Kana bean, that's not what he means by that." The prince chuckled. "I know you love your older brother, even if you get into arguments a lot. That's just part of growing up with a brother. Believe me, I grew up with two brothers myself, so I know what it's like. Besides, if anything bad ever happened to Shigure and it was up to you to get him out of trouble, I know that you'd leap in and save him without a second thought. Isn't that right?" Kana silently nodded as she subconsciously turned around and hugged her brother. That was enough to get Kamui to smile widely again. "Yeah, I figured as much. And also remember that if you were ever in trouble, Kana, Shigure would be right there to save you as well." He then turned back to his new friends. "Anyway, I need to get ready for my match, so why don't you two find seats in the audience so you can watch me and cheer me on? I'll be listening for your voices, you know."

"Then I'm gonna cheer louder than anybody for you, Papa!" Kana cheered up immediately. "You're the strongest fighter out there, I just know it! You can't lose!" Shigure nodded before adding his two cents in as well.

"I wish you luck as well, Father." He said. "I know you're going to do well." The blue haired young man then turned his sister around and started walking away with her out of sight, presumably toward the audience stands where they could see the upcoming match. Once they were out of sight and earshot, Daraen was the first to speak up.

"...I didn't know you were a father, Kamui." He stated. "You didn't mention them at all during our discussion last night. Who's their mother anyway?" Kamui's pointed ears folded down at the mention of Kana and Shigure's mother, and it took him a moment before he gave an answer.

"...Their mother is dead." He stated sadly. "Azura died at the very end of the war, right after we defeated the evil king of Nohr." There was another silence for a moment before Robin stepped forward and put a hand on the Hoshidan prince's shoulder.

"I understand your pain." The tactician gave a sad smile as he spoke. "I too lost my wife in battle. Just be lucky that you still have two lovely young children who can carry on your wife's legacy in her stead." Shulk could see that there was a lot of pain in Robin's eyes as he tried to comfort Kamui. He was trying to sound as free of bitter as possible with that last sentence, but the seer could tell that Robin was jealous that Kamui still had Kana and Shigure, whereas he had lost Morgan and Severa after Cordelia's death. Perhaps once they had a moment to themselves, Shulk could talk to his fiance about it and let him reveal his true feelings.

But until then, it was finally time for the Smash match to begin. A voice out on the court was announcing the match and how there were three newcomers who were going to be competing today to show off their skills in battle. Kamui's ears perked straight up as he realized that he was going to be late for his big debut if he didn't run. "I'll catch you guys after the match!" He shouted as he started hurrying away. "See ya!"

"We should head to the Smashers' Box ourselves to watch the match." Chrom stated. There was special seating for other competitors and assistants of the tournament who were not involved in the current matches, and that was where Chrom was referring to for them to sit and watch Kamui. "We're not gonna miss our new friend's debut match, after all." The others nodded their heads in agreement and started hurrying away in that direction, wondering just what kinds of battle skills they were going to see from Kamui, Corrin, and Bayonetta very soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3411 words. The Smash match next chapter is going to likely be a lot shorter than the one from The White Mage and the Machine, mostly because I don't feel like writing out an entire match like that again. Notes:
> 
> 1) Yep, there's my excuse for why the Corrins have the Omega Yato and how they can still be from post Conquest and Birthright. I didn't want them to be post-Revelation for reasons that I'll be addressing later.
> 
> 2) So we don't actually know just how powerful Master Hand really is, but he must be exceptionally strong if he's able to make sure nobody cheats or gets seriously hurt during Smash matches. In fact, he's likely one of the most powerful characters in this multiverse. ~~And yet, he's still worried about a tragedy that's apparently going to unfold sometime in the future.~~ The fact that Tabuu was able to control him during Subspace Emissary means that he's also one of the most powerful characters in the multiverse, so yeah, miracle that the Smashers won against him in the end.
> 
> 3) No, there's no tragic backstory behind what happened to Azura other than what actually happened in the real ending of Birthright. However, due to the fact that Kana and Shigure grew up in the Deeprealms as opposed to the future, they're still alive despite their mother being dead. Will this be a point of contention between Kamui and Robin? Maybe, maybe not.
> 
> ~~Also three guesses what my favorite MU pairing is despite the fact that it's technically incest. Sue me, Shigure is my favorite character in Fates and I want him to be my son because I feel awkward marrying second gen units.~~
> 
> Corrin's marital status will be addressed later.


	5. Black, White, and Black Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the first Smash match between Corrin, Kamui, and Bayonetta, everybody spends some time talking about their lives outside of the battle arena.

" **Game!** " The announcer's voice boomed. " **The winner is... Corrin!** "

"Good!" The dragon princess responded upon hearing her name being called as the victor while she struck a pose. One the sidelines, Bayonetta and Kamui were clapping their hands, as was customary for competitors to do after a match was over. Once the television screen faded out, Corrin stopped holding her pose and finally came down off the winner's pedestal, hurrying over to the other two newcomers that she just fought. "You guys fought well!" She responded cheerfully.

"I quite underestimated you." Bayonetta replied as she put her left hand on her hip. "Looks like I'm going to have to take this competition a little more seriously if all the competitors are as strong as you two." She had come in second place, just barely failing to take Corrin out before the Nohrian princess got a clean hit with her Dragon Lunge that sent the witch flying into a side Blast Zone for game. Kamui, who came in last place, had kept quiet ever since he was eliminated, but now that the match was over and the cameras weren't rolling anymore, he finally had a question to ask.

"Bayonetta, were you really going easy on us?" He asked. "I mean, you locked me in a combo and very nearly kicked me up into the top Blast Zone back there. I couldn't escape." The witch smiled a little and placed a hand on the Hoshidan prince's head (which annoyed him quite a bit, but he didn't vocalize his discomfort) and chuckled a little before giving her answer.

"I could have easily kicked you into the Blast Zone there. I had another upward kick I could use before dropping back down onto the stage." She teased. "Only reason I didn't was because you had just lost your other stock shortly prior and had been at 0% before I started the combo. I didn't want to upset your children too much and make you look like a complete loser in your first match." Kamui did a double take when his kids were brought up.

"...Wait, you know about my children?" He replied. "Where did you learn about them?"

"Right before the match, when you were talking to some other Smashers." Bayonetta replied. "You would have to be half deaf not to hear your daughter if you're anywhere in the vicinity. Kana, I believe her name is?" The dragon prince's face reddened at being told that Kana was too loud. He was going to have to have a discussion with her later about using an indoor voice while inside the backrooms of the stadium and probably put Shigure on duty to make sure she behaved. Even though Bayonetta knew about Kamui's kids, Corrin did not, and her eyes were sparkling a little as she spoke up again.

"You have kids, Kamui?" She asked excitedly. "Did they grow up in the Deeprealms? You'll have to introduce me to them one day!"

"Uhh, yes to everything, actually." Kamui scratched the back of his head. "What about you, Corrin? Don't you have kids of your own?" Almost immediately, the excitement faded from the Nohrian princess' eyes and she looked down at her feet.

"...No." She replied briefly, voice twinged with melancholy. "I haven't been able to find anybody who has been willing to settle down with me like that. Big Brother Xander told me that it was most important to have good rapport with all of the troops in order to keep spirits high in the Nohrian army."

"In other words, quantity over quality when it comes to relationships, I take it?" Bayonetta chimed in. "Well, I'm sure there are plenty of suitors in this place who would be willing to settle down with a pretty girl like you~" Corrin's face grew red and she shook her head quickly.

"I-I can't do that!" The princess protested. "Everybody comes from different worlds! I can't force anybody to leave their own world and come with me to Nohr!"

"So why don't you leave Nohr instead?" Kamui asked. "I mean, Xander's king now, right? He's a fairly young guy, and Camilla's also older than you, meaning you're third in line for the Nohrian throne. I kinda doubt that you'll be needed to ascend to the throne any time soon." Corrin was about to protest, claiming Kamui knew nothing, but she held her tongue upon realizing that he was completely correct. Seeing as their stories had started out the same up until that fateful day when they had to pick a side in the war, Kamui knew all about the Nohrian siblings due to also growing up with them.

"...Maybe..." Corrin answered quietly. "I mean, I came to fight, but..." Just then, a shrill voice cut Corrin off and caused all three competitors to turn in that direction. Sure enough, a certain blue haired young girl with her hair pulled up into a bun was barreling in their direction and her older brother not far behind.

"Papa!" Kana threw herself into her father's arms. "That was so cool what you did out there! You were making your limbs and head go dragon every other moment while you fought, and you were fighting off two foes at once!" The girl's pointy ears drooped slightly before she continued. "...It's just a shame that you got last place..." Kamui smiled in spite of his daughter's disappointment and ruffled the top of her head, trying to get her to snap out of her disappointment.

"This is only the first battle of many." He chuckled. "I'm sure I'll have plenty of victories before we head back home to Hoshido. You just have to make sure you cheer louder next time so that I can hear you from the stands, okay?" Kana's ears perked up and she looked back at Shigure, giving him a wide grin.

"You heard that? Papa says to yell louder so he can hear me!" She laughed. The dragon girl's brother rolled his eyes and buried his face in his right hand.

"...By the time the tournament is over, I'm going to be deaf at this rate..." He mumbled. "So much for being able to sing..." A second later, he stood up straight again as he addressed his father, hiding his annoyance toward Kana's loud voice as he spoke up. "We will definitely continue to keep rooting for you, Father. I'm sure you'll win next time." Kamui's ears flicked a little as he smiled at Shigure.

"Yeah, I'm sure I will, too." He replied, nodding to his son. The dragon prince knew he had plenty of opportunities to impress his kids, and that this was only a minor setback.

Just then, the door to the studio opened up and the sound of high heels could be heard signaling the entrance of somebody new. Everybody present looked back to see who was entering and noticed the the purple blur quickly headed in Corrin's direction. She was very nearly tackled to the ground before she realized what hit her, but upon realizing, she chuckled loudly and returned the hug.

"Oh, my dear little sister~" The voice belonged to none other than Camilla. "I'm sooo glad you managed to win your first battle! I was rooting for you the whole time, you know." A moment later, the elder Nohrian princess's retainers entered the room as well, though they stood back a little from the crowd that was near the results stage. Beruka quickly crossed her arms after she stopped moving, while Noemin clasped her hands together and looked around warily.

Corrin couldn't help but blush as she finally responded to Camilla, though. "A-ah, it's nothing, really! I just fought as hard as I could and ended up winning... somehow. I mean, both Kamui and Bayonetta are really strong too!"

"I feel a lot better about you staying to participate in this tournament now." Camilla finally let go of her sister and moved back a few paces. "After all, you can put all those boys in their place if you need to, as today proved. Anyway, I just came to congratulate you before I head back to Nohr to tell your brother how things are here. Take care, Corrin~ Bye bye~" And with that, Camilla sashayed over to the entrance to the room just in time to open the door for a few more people to come in while she and her retainers left. Those entering were the other four members of the group of friends, and Robin couldn't help but nod to Noemin as she left, which resulted in the dark green haired girl to blush and hurry out even faster.

"Oh hey, there you guys are!" Kamui stated as he saw the others enter and walked up to them. "You guys aren't gonna kick me out of your group just because I lost, are you?" Daraen shook his head as he answered the question that was given.

"Of course not." He said. "Each of us have our share of defeats. You aren't going to win every match here, you know."

"You sure have made a lot of friends quickly, haven't you, Kamui?" Corrin chimed in as she looked at the group of Smashers. "I mean, it's our first full day here, and you're already a member of these guys?" Daraen answered for Kamui, walking forward into sight of the Nohrian princess.

"Kamui is my roommate, so I figured I'd let him pal around with my friends." The White Mage explained. "I figured I'd give him an initiation challenge so he could be a full fledged member of the group."

"...You just said he wasn't going to get kicked out of the group, Daraen..." Shulk chimed in just then. Realizing he had just contradicted himself, the black haired tactician blushed slightly and redacted his statement, but not before noticing that Bayonetta's expression had changed so that she looked more intrigued than she was before. Either way, he backpedaled.

"...An initiation challenge that he has since passed with flying colors!" He exclaimed. "Hence why I said he's not getting kicked out of the group! Ahahaha..." After he finished speaking, Bayonetta started walking over in his direction, which caused Daraen to flinch slightly, thinking that she might do something because he was caught in the act. However, his worries quickly faded when the Umbra Witch walked right past him and didn't even bat an eye in his direction. It wasn't Daraen that she was interested in - it was Shulk.

"Well, I wasn't expecting to hear another accent like my own around here." She stated with an amused tone to her voice. Sure enough, Bayonetta had a very similar English accent to Shulk's. This was as much a surprise to the Monado wielder as it had been to the witch, and he had to double take as he listened to the voice coming from the woman who was towering over him. It really was a very similar accent to his own!

"You have a Bionite accent too?" He replied. "But... I thought that Master Hand said that you came from a completely different universe than any of the other fighters in this tournament."

"Indeed." The witch replied as she placed one hand on her hip and continued looking the smaller man over. "After all, what you call a 'Bionite' accent we refer to back home as an 'English' accent. How curious that you happen to have an accent much like what I would hear back home when you're from another world altogether..."

"Well, a lot of us have very similar accents to one another, actually." Robin piped up. "Like, even though Samus is from a different universe than me, for example, we have similar accents. Most of us just take it for granted, though." Robin hadn't even given the accents much thought prior to Bayonetta bringing it up, after all. It's likely nobody in the room really had until it was brought up, in fact.

"...Quite." Bayonetta started sashaying toward the exit after dismissing Robin's statement, finally speaking up again as she got over to the door. "Anyway, it's getting quite crowded in here. I'm going back to my room for a little while to have a little... peace and quiet. So long, gentlemen-" She then looked at the people gathered, noticing the white-blond Nohrian princess. "-and Corrin-" As well as the blue haired dragon child standing next to her older brother. "-and Kana." Satisfied that there were no other ladies present, she then made her exit.

"...Well, I suppose we should be leaving as well." Shigure replied as he took Kana's hand. "We still need to unpack our stuff, so we should work on that. Come on, Kana. Farewell, Father!" And with that, he started walking away with his sister in tow. That just left the five young men and Corrin.

"From how Bayonetta was talking, I don't think I should head back to our room just now..." The dragon princess scratched her head as she looked at the door. "I don't suppose I can join you guys in doing something, could I?"

"Well, if you really want to just listen to a bunch of guys chattering about nothing important over dinner, feel free to join us, Corrin." Chrom answered. "That's mostly what we're going to be doing, after all." Corrin couldn't help but chuckle a little.

"All right, I should probably be building rapport with my fellow competitors anyway." She replied. "I don't mind small talk for that purpose."

"Then let's go get some dinner." Daraen smiled as he turned toward the entrance to the room to prompt the others with him to do so as well. Sure enough, they all started moving that way, agreeing with the idea. The White Mage hung back until everybody else was about to leave, but then moved forward to hold the door for Corrin, bowing his head as he addressed her. "After you, Corrin~" He stated in a suave manner.

"Heheh, you're Daraen, right?" She asked as she stepped through the door before he followed her out. "I've heard quite a bit about you from Kamui. He's a little worried about your messy habits where you have books laying around all over the place on your side of the room, but he still thinks you're really nice and interesting in spite of that. Is it really true that you knocked Kamui out with a pile of books?" The mage's face grew pink at the thought of that event and he chuckled awkwardly.

"Well, yeah... It was half his fault though. I'll tell you more over dinner, seeing as it's kind of a long story."

"I'll hold you to that, then. For now, let's catch up to the rest of the guys." And with that, they hurried their pace in order to catch up with the rest of the group as they set out for the mansion's main dining hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2489 words. Sorry for the delay, summer classes caught up with me, but now I'm done with them. As easily as this could segue into another chapter, it would mostly be just slice of life stuff (as this chapter was for the most part) with not much of value happening. School may be starting again on Monday, but I hopefully should be able to get the first chapter of my next story out relatively soon. This chapter mostly just exists to tie up some loose ends and establish some more relationships between characters ~~including what might very well end up being a ship, oops~~. Notes:
> 
> 1\. As much as I wanted to do another chapter like what happened at the end of The White Mage and the Machine, I just couldn't pull it together this time. Therefore, you get an aftermath chapter instead. Sorry.
> 
> 2\. Even though I didn't write it, I did let a Smash match play out on my Wii U to determine who the winner was. And everything that's mentioned as happening in the discussion in the chapter actually did happen in the match. Yes, Kamui very nearly got 0 to death'd by Bayonetta.
> 
> 3\. One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to Smash is people calling Shulk's accent 'Australian'. **NO.** His accent is _English_ , not Australian! Adam Howden is from _England_! Nobody ever calls Bayonetta's accent anything other than English, and yet Shulk's is constantly mistaken for Australian.
> 
> Anywho, seeing as Bayonetta and Shulk both have English accents despite coming from completely different worlds, I thought it would be an interesting little nod to bring that up, plus finally hang a lampshade on the fact that most of the other characters (who speak English) have American voice actors/actresses and have similar accents despite coming from completely different universes.
> 
> 4\. Don't worry - even though Camilla's headed back to Nohr, she and her retainers will probably show up again sooner or later. Perhaps some of the other Nohrian royals (or perhaps the Hoshidan royals from Kamui's side) will show up too.


End file.
